Please note that all of my work is original and is the sole property of Andrea MacDonald unless otherwise stated. If you use or copy any of the work on my blog please be sure to contact me beforehand and give me credit when using it.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Hey everyone we're half way through the week. I've been finding my days a bit long lately. The weather hasn't been very spring-like and the kids are dying to spend more time outside.

On a good note, Your scrapbook stash is having a fun little challenge. Use any of their 2011 sketches for some fun prizes. First up is this sketch from 3/4:

and here is my take:

I decided to use only one photo and replace the other photo spots with those fun little playing cards from My Minds Eye.

Next up is sketch from 2/18:

I decided to flip it:

I used my November kit from Studio Calico for this one.

I was on a roll so I did one more using this sketch from 1/29

I'm not a circle person so I took the circles out. Believe me though, I am seriously trying to use them more ; )

So there you have it! I've been busy and I had fun. You can check out the challenge here.

One last thing is that the new challenge is up at These Are A Few of My Favourite Things. Love this challenge... fav scrapbooking tool. Please head on over there to take a peak at all of my friends fun scrappy tools and of course their gorgeous layouts. You'll definitely want to play along because there's a great little prize containing some Webster's Pages goodies!!!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Hey everyone, it's Trifecta day today at the Design Dollies!!!!! I have to tell you I'm a little tired today but I'll explain in a minute.

First up is the new challenge over at the Design Dollies. Can you believe it's another Trifecta? I can not believe it's the end of March already. Where is the time going????

So lets recap... First our colour challenge was monochromatic pink with a splash of yellow.

Then we had our elements challenge that was to celebrate something about you.

Last we had a fun sketch:

and here is my layout:

Whenever I do the Trifecta I tend to stick pretty closely to the sketch. I used Echo Parks paper, my Studio Calico polaroid stamp and some other yummy goodies from the Studio Calico Feb kit (??? I think???). I think this was my favourite Trifecta yet. I always have troubles being creative on them but this one I quite like. Please head on over to the Dollies and join the fun. There is another fabulous prize up for grabs!!!!

Now, why am I so tired???? Well someone is turning 2 and...

I spent all of my saturday making that cake! Cute eh? I've never taken a cake decorating class before but I think I need to now because big sis is going to want a cake just as special. I know it.

Lola was so excited and happy. I can't believe she is turning 2. I think I might be getting old and I'm still closer to 30 than 40.

I think she approves of the cake.

Big sis on the verge of taking over the blowing out of the candles.

We had a great weekend!!!

Just so you know I will be participating in a blog hop April 7 to 9 and will post more details. There are going to be some pretty fantastic prizes up for grabs and I know one of them is fromThese are a few of my fav things. Also, new challenge will be up soon over there.

I also have some exciting news to share but I can't quite spill the beans yet. Stay tuned ; )

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Is it weird that yesterday was my wonderful hubby's birthday and today I got to work out, go get a massage and just waiting to head out the door for a haircut? Totally feels like a spa day. On top of that we are having the most beautiful day EVER on the west coast. It seriously feels like summer at the moment. With the gorgeous weather I thought I would share a layout I created for the latest challenge at Sassafras. It was to create a layout using blocking. I was originally going to stack them overlapping each other but then I decided to do obvious blocking. I went with super bright colours.

Just noticed I didn't crop this layout very well. I've been having issues with cropping my layouts.

I've been trying to create more double pages lately because when I teach at the stores that is what the customers want. So here is what I created with this sketch.

I used Studio Calico's March kit to create it. I love the gorgeous colours.

I also created another double page layout using Studio Calico's March kit. I made my Washi tape into a ruffled pleat and machine stitched it. This one was created using a sketch I saw over at Paislee and Polka Dots. I didn't ink edges or anything fancy and I have to say it isn't as nice as when I do put the effort into doing those little touches. So note to self... ink edges.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Hi everyone, the new challenge is up at These are a few of my favourite things!!!! I loved the prompt... Fav Pastimes! As I write this post it dawned on me that I must be on a fitness kick because 2 of my layouts this week for 2 different DT's are both about working out and being fit. I must have health on the brain. Anyways, back to my layout. My fav pastime is working out. As I wrote on my page I never would have thought that working out would be a favourite activity for me. I have always been active and doing lots of different sports but after I did my 12 week bootcamp I really enjoy going to the gym and sweating. Gross eh?

So what's your favourite pastime? I would love to know. We also have a fabulous prize up for grabs at These are a few of my fav things... a GC to Scrapbook.com! So head on over HERE to play along with us and check out what the lovely DT ladies created.

Don't forget Design Dollies new challenge is up too. You can go HERE for that one.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Good morning friends. This morning I write this blog post while relaxing at the Tigh Na Mara in Parksvile. Hubby and I left the kids with G & G and took a day away to relax. We have never done that before. It has been lovely but we find ourselves anxious with nothing to do. I guess this means I need breakfast ; )

Today is Elements day over at the Doll house. Our challenge is to celebrate yourself. This was a great challenge for me. I took the plunge in December and signed up for a weight loss challenge. I never thought I was over weight but I was never happy with the way I looked after having to kids back to back. Well 12 weeks later I have lost 15 pounds and I am signed up for 2 Triathlons. I feel great. Here is the layout I made documenting this journey.

I think this is a wonderful challenge. I know for myself I don't do enough layouts about me and I try to remind myself that I need to do more. What would happen if I passed away too soon? I want my girls to know who I was. So besides there being an awesome prize wouldn't it just rock to start doing more of these layouts for yourself? Head over to the Dollies and play along. I guessing you'll be glad you did.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Well today has been a great day. My parents decided even after their horrible accident they would come out to the Island. Well this morning they made it! I am so happy to see them and know that they really are safe and sound. Their motorhome and car were completely written off but it is just stuff right??? So glad they are okay. On a selfish note I was especially excited to see these babies:

My awesome friend Lolly has a fabulous husband who makes them. I got her to ship them to my parents when they were living in the US. We weren't sure if they survived the car crash but they did! Yay!!! I know what I'm doing tonight : )

I know I recently showed you this canvas layout but I am entering it into the weekly Simon Says Stamp contest, Anything Goes. It has misting, stamping, paper and embellies. Love it.

Lastly on my post today is a layout I made for Crate Papers colour challenge for March. The colours are grey, yellow and craft.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Good morning to all of my crafty friends out there. I had a busy weekend but after a fabulous sleep I am back on track. I am back from teaching at Treasured Memories annual event Camp Crop a lot. It is held at Camp Quanoes and it is sooooo beautiful there. I wish I could have stayed the 4 days. Anyways, classes were a hit and I will post pictures of what we created later this week.

Today is a new colour challenge over at the Design Dollies. I loved this challenge... monochromatic pink with a splash of yellow.

I used some Studio Calico paper, some ribbon from American Crafts, a variety of Prima flowers (I also made my own), and some yellow Studio Paint and my letters are from Sassafras. As simplistic as this layout is I love it. Maybe because I used a picture of my little ballerina ; )

This weeks prize is from one of our fabulous designers Leah. She has something pretty fabulous up for grabs. So head on over to the Design Dollies to play along this week.

The fabulous Julie just informed me about a challenge using lots of flowers so I'm going to enter this into Scrapbookers Anonymous' layout using minimum of 7 flowers.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Anyone else feel like the week has just flown by? We had a big storm on the Island yesterday and we were prepared for chaos but ended up we didn't see much. Thank goodness because parts of the Island were without power all day.

Super busy week, I am teaching at an event this weekend on Crofton BC. Treasured Memories is hosting their annual scrapbook retreat and I am teaching 3 different classes. I was supposed to go for the entire weekend to get a little fun stuff done foe myself but since my parents accident I wasn't able to go for the whole 4 days. Anyways, I've been busy putting my kits together and I am very excited. I'll post pics next week.

I am also in the process of doing Karen Grunberg's Finding your way class on Big Picture Scrapbooking. As part of the class we are encouraged to do a layout a day for 30 days. So far I have managed except yesterday. So I have to make it up tonight : )

Here are a few that I have accomplished:

This first layout is for the weekly sketch challenge over at Studio Calico. I used one of my older SC kits (I think it was august???)

This pretty one is for the sketch challenge at Bluemoon scrapbooking (one of my favourite online stores). I used Pink Paislee Sweetness, and painted all of the flowers with Chandelier Glimmer Glam.

and this last one... well it was supposed to be for Project 12 February but when I went back to post it I saw that it was a completely different sketch than the one I used. I did use a Becky Fleck sketch but I have no idea where I got it. So I'm not even going to bother showing you the real february sketch because my layout looks absolutely nothing like it ; ) See this is the kind of week I've been having. Okay just figured out my mistake... it was last years Feb sketch. Ugh! I need to pay more attention to detail. Oh well I got my Feb layout done!!!